Surveys Updated with Shipping Fees
over 1 year ago – Fri, Sep 09, 2022 at 11:33:37 AM

Thank You for Prompt Surveys!

First, a pre-emptive shout-out to the 70% of backers who filled out their survey. As I noted earlier, this was extremely helpful in allowing me to get in front of shipping rates, both domestically and internationally.

Shipping Rates Posted

That being out of the way, I have consulted with Backerkit, done a bit of back-and-forth, and I believe all the shipping tables are in place.

I have also enabled Local Pickup, provided you can get to the southern Twin Cities to do so.

There shouldn't be too many surprises compared to Update #4. Checking what actually happened compared to what I thought would happen, it's going to be within a few dollars, and the largest disparities will be due to VAT (and in the EU I'll be sending DDP from GamesQuest, so no double-dipping there).

The AUS/NZ packages are proportional to the increased weight of the books, but $16 for AUS and $20 for NZ for two thin books turned into $40 and $49 for four thicker ones. That being said, some of the prices for direct ship that I was seeing pushed $87, so it was definitely a bad cop/worse cop situation.

Charge Shipping Later Feedback

Feedback regarding Charge Shipping Later has been relayed, along with suggestions for improvements to Backerkit. They've received them with interest and thanks. "Improvements" includes a pre-emptive "opt-in/opt-out" in the surveys for those who want to use PayPal, aren't comfortable giving payment information until all prices are firm, or anything else. That same volatility that makes creators opt in for the "Charge Shipping Later" option to begin is also uncertainty on the backer end.

Back to School; Back to Work!

Today was the first day of school for my girls, so the summer is officially over. This is a good thing! It helps with a regular schedule and fewer distractions during the day.

This morning (while Backerkit slept...), I made updates to Dark Lord's Doom and Till Death Do Us Part, and got them into blind fight-test with some of my long-time supporters and Patreon Subscribers.

Right now, I'm working on improvements to Vampire Hunter Belladonna, and I am hopeful to get this book into second-phase fight-testing by end of day tomorrow.

Then it's all about Dragon Hunt!

Shipping Update - estimated domestic postage
over 1 year ago – Tue, Sep 06, 2022 at 05:51:11 AM

Thanks to some yeoman's work by you, the backers, roughly 60% of the surveys are filled out. This lets me start to get a good look at what people are ordering specifically, which lets me properly assess and estimate domestic shipping charges.

Media Mail

For this project, I'm just going to use media mail rates for shipping. It'll be simpler than to mess with assessing "parcel" rates but then giving a credit at the end to account for those with books-only in their carts. When the difference between the two rates is high (and it has been for me in the past), I've had to do jump through some hoops to make sure things worked out. That's not the case this time, so I can start applying rate tables with confidence in the outcome. 

Domestic Postage and Packages

So, thus far, 77% of the physical packages are headed for the USA. That's not surprising. 

Here are the top four package groups that have been ordered, and an estimation of the shipping rates. 

They should be pretty close to what you see in your cart, eventually: probably within $1.

• Four solos only ($50 pledge tier): $9 (Media Mail)
• Hardback book plus 4 solos ($85 US Hub tier): $10 (Media Mail)
• Four solos ($50 tier) and cards ($50 add-on): $10 (USPS Parcel Select Ground)
• Four solos, hardback book, cards ($85 tier + $50 add-on): $11 (USPS Parcel Select Ground)
• Retail Level (3x of the four solos): $12 (Media Mail)

I can't turn on shipping region by region, so I've got to finalize my rates for all my other locations first, then chat with Backerkit, then turn it on. I do hope to have all of this sorted and shipping rate charges enabled later this week if things go well. If not, I'll post an update.

Then it's just head-down on production and playtest.

Surveys Out! Pre-order Store Active!
over 1 year ago – Sun, Sep 04, 2022 at 09:06:14 PM

The smoke test went as well as could be hoped, so this morning, I pushed the button to launch surveys for everyone. I also finished the last few items and opened the pre-order store.

Pre-Order Store Open!

If you missed the campaign, it's not too late. The OSE Solo Adventures pre-order store is now taking orders!

There are "pledge-level equivalents" that are one-click, for the same price, for all of the bundles offered in the campaign. So if you missed it, or were on the fence, or August was a bad month for you...you have a second opportunity!

Surveys and Two-Phase Shipping

So, the survey completion rate is already 25%, so today seems to be a good day to send surveys. Please try and get these done as quickly as you can, so there's nothing standing between you and your stuff.

As I keep noting, the Charge Shipping Later feature of Backerkit has been enabled. This means that you'll fill out your survey, decide on add-ons, and enter payment information (credit card only) for the things you want now.

Then later, after 90% of the surveys are done, after playtesting of the conversions is complete, and even after I've ordered physical copies of everything I need ... there will be a second round of charges with up-to-the-minute (or as close as I can make it) for shipping of physical goods. PayPal will be accepted for this round of charges. 

(PayPal vs Card isn't a choice I get to make; that's a Backerkit/PayPal thing.)

Once we get closer, there are a few details about shipping rates, especially for US Media Mail, that I'll talk about...but that's not important for now.

Please Share!

There were a lot of people watching the campaign who didn't come over to pledge. As I mentioned in my last Ballistic's Report, I still had something like 1,100 backers "following, but not backed" when the campaign closed. I also had nearly 10% of folks who pledged drop out before the end. (The highest backer number was 885, only 15 away from the 900 stretch goal!

So there's still a chance that we've not yet sated the interest in these solo adventures ... and sharing of the pre-order store link and campaign page would be greatly appreciated!

Backerkit Surveys Approved; Smoke Test Next Week
over 1 year ago – Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 11:36:39 AM

Survey Progress

Things humming along in the background, but wanted to give an update.

• I've got the Backerkit surveys ready to send out. That went quite smoothly this time.
• Kickstarter is still working on charging cards for backers; there are just over a dozen with hiccups in the process, and that needs some time to resolve. If KS can't resolve, those will still get surveys, but the entire pledge amount will be collected in Backerkit.
• Once that happens, I'll do the smoke test, which means something like 5% of backers will get preliminary surveys to ensure things go smoothly. Once that's validated, the surveys go out en masse.

Initial Survey Wave

The initial wave of surveys will have several purposes:

• Choosing PDFs for those in the "pick one" and "pick two" pledge levels.
• Inspecting the offerings to see if you want any add-ons. The cards, Dungeon Grappling, Dragon Heresy, and Lost Hall of Tyr are all available through this ... basically all of my directly and vaguely related products.
• Also, if you've got a physical order, you'll be asked for a shipping address; you ought to also be asked for a credit card.

Then it's a matter of waiting until 85-90% of the surveys are done, and then we can start looking at the next phase.

Work In Progress

I'm still working on crafting the final PDFs, getting some fight-test feedback, and the like. You will hear more about that later. This is likely to take a bit more time to finalize, then test, adjust, and lather, rinse, repeat until we can get to where I'm satisfied.

At that point, I'll check to see if anyone falls into the "forbidden fruit" category: people who have ordered product that doesn't ship to their location, or where they have an order for the wrong hub. (A US order out of the UK hub, or cards that are being asked to be sent to the EU). 

I'll give some time to resolve that, and if I can't, pledges will be adjusted manually (and refunded if necessary, less the 10% Kickstarter fee).

It's the shipping address that matters, though. If you live in the EU but are having cards sent to a freight forwarder in Baltimore, Maryland or something...that works for me.

Two-Phase Shipping: "Charge Shipping Later"

Once that's complete, I can start locking orders and charging cards...and then it's time to submit print orders and use the completed surveys to get really accurate information on shipping costs.

At that point, a second round of charges will come through just for shipping. Please be aware this is coming. It allows me to ensure that shipping and any staging costs are covered; last time I was able to hit within basically a few dollars total of the appropriate shipping costs.

Printing will be in two places: the UK and the US. I'll be fulfilling the US Hub orders out of my home; the UK hub gets done by GamesQuest.

PayPal vs Credit Card

It is a quirk of the Charge Shipping Later system that it cannot be used with PayPal...but the second wave can be. If you really want to only use PayPal, you need to wait to fill out your survey until the shipping wave.

I'd rather people didn't do that ... but I also understand why people would want to. So that's that.

Head-Down for A Bit

With that, I'm going to go "head down" for a bit, and start working on incorporating playtest feedback from the three adventures that are in that stage, and working on Dragon Hunt, the longest and highest-level of the adventures. I've learned a lot from Vampire Hunter Belladonna, so hopefully lessons learned will be easily applied.

More early next week during smoke-test time!

Something completely different: Viking Training Sword Modification
over 1 year ago – Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 11:31:19 AM

This is a bit of a digression, because I had a lot of fun this morning on a personal project. I'm sharing...but if you're not into crafting and such, best to skip it. :-)

When I'm not doing publishing, I do other things. One of those things is some obscure HEMA - Viking-style shield-and-weapon fighting. My group (Asfolk, in MN) tries to work with equipment that's as similar to historical weight and manufacture as is feasible, and then we work on things from there. I got into it after DnD 5e came out, because I was (and now even more so) was skeptical that a piece of material that covered half your body was worth only +1 or +2 to Armor Class, a 5% or 10% change in hit chances when looking at 1d20. So rather than just complain, I signed up for classes. Who knows...maybe it was right.

In any case, I recently purchased a Grimfrost Asgarthr sword as a steel trainer, having reached that point in my training. It is very, very inexpensive for a sword, which can (and does) mean you get what you paid for. 

One of those things is that the grip lengths on most mass-produced modern Viking swords are longer by quite a bit than most historical examples. That's a whole 'nother ball of wax as to why, and grip styles, and duels at twenty paces (or Holmgang!) over handshake and hammer grip. But...in any case my sword's grip is too long for my hand.

What follows is a bit of a journal of my shortening the grip on my sword this morning. Because you can't be writing 24-7.

Executive Summary!

I spent the morning modifying a new-to-me Viking practice sword to fit my hand better

It was a bit of a chore, but worked out OK in the end.

I adjusted the grip length on the Grimfrost Asgarthr sword. It's $290 including the scabbard, but when I picked it up for the first time, it really felt...not good. Despite having a 4.5" balance point, the 4" grip and clunky-feeling pommel (it's a beast) just weren't working for me. You get what you pay for, eh?

In any case, I wanted to see if I could shorten the grip. The TL;DR of it is that the crossguard is a bit loose now, but everything else worked ok. Some things to keep in mind if you pursue this course:

• This is a 3.1-lb sword, with substantial presence. It's heavy.
• They seem to use a filler or epoxy to help keep the pommel on the tang. I had to heat it up with a torch to break that down a bit, and of course after I had to glove up (double-glove, actually).
• The point of the sword is not suitable at all for training. What I did was use a US dime to make a perfectly round tip, and carbide dremel tool tips to file it off, then round the edges a bit and buff them with successive dremel tip passes down to 320 grit. We don't want to impale anyone, so this is key. 
• I probably left too much to peen down in the end, because I really didn't want to cut off too much of the tang. 

But as I noted, in the end, it's a better sword for what we do than when I got it. It's still not as nimble or responsive as other swords I've handled, but for $300 including the scabbard, I don't expect that. 

As received, with the scabbard. You can see that the pommel is actually canted on the hilt. This did not help. Also, the belt is built for Jotunn. I had to put in more new holes. Scabbard also wants to fall out of the loops. You can actually see the model in the Grimfrost image is holding things in place. Now I know why.  I set it out with my Dremel, grinding bits, and buffing tips to work.

Fixing the Point: Thou Shalt Not Impale Thy Friends

Really made a lot of metal dust here; I wore a surgical mask and safety glasses and was glad for it.

First up was fixing the point, which even though the edge was dull was unacceptably pointy. I made a target with the curvature of a US dime, ground it down with a carbide tip, and then buffed it out. I left the tip larger than the edge, because stabby-stabby. I also buffed the corners of the entire length of the edge, including the tip, on both sides so there's no chance of a burr or a hard edge making an accidental draw-cut.

Why...won't...this...pommel...come...off...

Then it was time to remove the pommel. This is where the pommel was putting up a fight. It took multiple passes with the grinding wheel to free the tang...but it took a hit with the blowtorch to free up the epoxy to the point it would move more than this. I had to really beat the hell out of it.

Eventually it came free. To my pleasure, the tang-taper was not bad, and pretty consistent.

I cut off the leather with an XActo knife, then peeled it off. I used a few different tools, including an oscillating saw and a chisel to remove the wood bit. The good news is that the guard beneath the lobed bit is wide enough to accept the full tang.

Test Fit and Beating the Heck out of it with a Hammer

Test-fit at the new length! You can see I put the pins back that hold the lobs together. You can also see that the pommel is no longer canted, so go me. Those pins really wanna fall out though. I cheated to: Some JB Weld fixed it right up. At this point, it was clear the crossguard was going to rattle some. Alas.

I heated up the cut-off tang, which was still too much material, really. Then I had to double-glove here due to the heat and hold the pommel-cap pins in place with two fingers as I used both heavy and light hammers to peen it down.

And ... done

Finally, here's the finished piece. The epoxy has to harden, but it should be ready-enough for gentle use tonight, and full use Saturday. 

I wound up removing a bit less than I wanted (it's always easier to remove less than more...) but it still feels a LOT better in my hand.

It definitely seems like a lot of work to slash off about a half-inch of grip, with a shift in balance from 4.5" to 4.75" (towards the sword tip)...but I can only say "it's much, much better now."